


flesh and bone by the telephone

by Caracalliope



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Beforus Culling (Homestuck), Corporal Punishment, Gen, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Manipulation, Self-Hatred, background Diemen Xicali/Kankri Vantas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:15:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caracalliope/pseuds/Caracalliope
Summary: Kankri Vantas believes he is reliable enough, for a culled young adult. But sometimes he strays from the correct path.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	flesh and bone by the telephone

Kankri does understand why his sponsor has to discipline him. A person such as Kankri may be allowed nearly all the privileges of living in a civilized society: he is awarded protection from the primordial violence of the lower castes, he is shielded from cutting words, from hunger, from the acid rain. But to allow him to pail would be irresponsible from an evolutionary point of view. And though Kankri knows that he never touched a pail, and that he would never dishonor the Mother Grub by allowing his slurry to be collected, it is understandable that his sponsor cannot trust his word on that.

(Kankri knows that Diemen swallowed it all down and then winked at him, and that Diemen has been culled too but his sponsor is "chill" and doesn't forbid copulation. Diemen was worried when he realized that Kankri would be in trouble, and he has been sending an intriguing combination of personal questions and meat memes. But Kankri will not be allowed to text him back, now that he has proven himself to be a threat to society in this sordid way. It would be better to block him. He doesn't, though, not until his sponsor tells him to.)

"Come on in, you," Kankri hears from his sponsor's office, and he deletes the texts before sinking his palmhusk into a pocket of his hoodie.

At eleven sweeps, Kankri no longer has illusions about any significant growth spurts awaiting him. He will always have to look up at his sponsor, who has already prepared the chair for him. The old sense of cold bitterness rises and is quashed. Kankri is an adult now, and this is his life. Being sullen about that would be unjust.

His sponsor smiles, showing every fang, and Kankri silently gets into position, kneeling up on the chair and holding on to the backrest. His sponsor will make him wait, and the best thing Kankri can do now is fix his thoughts on - Diemen - no, on theory. He will keep his thoughts on his studies from now on.

His sponsor always chooses a tool fit for the severity of the infraction, and Kankri should not be surprised by the cane. Still, he recoils slightly when it is presented to him. A wave of shame follows - he knows that he's fortunate to receive content warnings before the correction starts. But his sponsor doesn't stop to analyze Kankri's behavior today. Kankri hopes that this means the interaction would be completed quickly.

When the cane lands across his shoulders, he thinks about how it isn't the pain that he hates the most. The pain has its place and purpose, and Kankri understands the science and the sociology behind it. He just loathes the way his body reacts to it: with rising tension and juvenile impatience. After six stripes, he should feel lighter, quieter, cleaner, softer, and cared for. All Kankri feels is an unacceptable, useless fury. He feels it rising from his throat, heating up his face, his fronds, his torso. He thinks of strangling his sponsor, then lowers his head to keep the thought from showing.

Kankri has lucky bastard privilege tonight: his sponsor chooses to take that gesture as a sign of surrender. Kankri receives three more stripes - they land across the shoulders again, there was no need for Kankri to take off his leggings this time - and the punishment is done. It takes all of Kankri's willpower to follow it up correctly, with an apology and a performance of gratitude. He goes to his knees in front of his sponsor and hopes that his palmhusk will not become a topic of conversation.


End file.
